Britain or Bust!
by PsychoticEyes
Summary: Thirteen-year-old wizard Conrad's life changes when he and his family make a sudden move to England. What adventures will he have in the new country and who will he make friends with?
1. Over The Country And Across The Sea

**CHAPTER ONE:  
Over the Country And Across The Sea, To The United Kingdom I Go**  
  
"When you said just a few seconds ago that we were moving to England, that was a joke, right?" I asked incredulously. I couldn't understand why my parents were doing this. They never were actually serious about moving, although they had dreams about moving to the Midwest once in a while. But England? In my whole thirteen years, I had only moved once, from Milpitas to Pleasanton, California. That was like, 30 miles. Not 6,000!  
  
"We're serious about this, Conrad. I know it seems really crazy to move to a whole different country, but this is just an opportunity that we can't miss," my mom tried to explain.  
  
"That's not fair! What about all my friends?" Tina shrieked. Tina was fifteen years old and was close friends with just about everybody in her grade.  
  
"No! We can't move to the UK. (A) It would cost like, ten million dollars to transport everything. (2) The food there is disgusting. They have something called like, "Steak and Liver Pie. Gross!" I continued counting off reasons why England was not a good place to move.  
  
A few minutes later, "(X) England has totally crappy weather. They don't have a sky, only clouds. Summer would feel like late fall and winter fills the whole country with snow." At this, Tina squealed. She loved the snow. "(25) How will I even understand the language?"  
  
My mom sighed. "The English speak English Conrad." Tina looked at me like I was insane.  
  
"Well, duh, but I speak American. And they have severe accents, so it would be difficult for me to communicate with anyone else."  
  
I knew there was no way whatsoever that my mom and dad would follow through with this supposed move to England. After all, they were always fantasizing about selling the house and moving to Iowa. Why should this be any different?  
  
**Four months later...**  
  
I had trouble breathing when I heard the overhead speakers of SFO airport call "Final boarding call for flight 211 to London." How could I be moving to England? Things were just moving way too fast. Five months ago if I asked my mother how she would like to move to England she would have been horrified at the thought of leaving the great United States. I handed my ticket to the young Asian looking lady at the booth in front of the "doorway to doom." In other words, the doorway that led to the jumbo jet that was to leave me stranded in a foreign country for who knows how long. The ticket lady ripped the ticked in half and returned the remaining half to me, which had my seat number on it.  
  
"Have a nice flight-" she looked at the ticked, "Conrad Pott." She mispronounced 'Conrad' as 'ConeRED.'  
  
"Yeah right," I mumbled back.  
  
I saw Tina look glumly at her ticket and give it to the lady who was now right behind him.  
  
"Cheer up, kids," my dad said. "It's not everyday you get to see a whole new country."  
  
I realized my dad was right. This would be my first time ever leaving the country! I decided to look at the move to England in a new light. But I was still scared of the though of leaving the country. 


	2. The Home In England

**CHAPTER TWO:  
The Home In England**  
  
Suddenly, the pilot called, "We will be reaching the London airport in about ten minutes. The time of day is now three fifteen in the morning of August third." When we left it was seven in the morning of August second. No, it was not a 20 hour flight. It's just that England was in a different time zone than California. Right now it wouldn't normally even be dinner time yet.  
  
The weather was absolutely terrible. The sky was pitch black, (it was 3:15 AM though) and we had been experiencing very heavy rain that made a loud ruckus when it hit the plane ever since they were on the eastern half of the Atlantic. According to the pilot, it was 48 degrees with 'Very Heavy Rain' in London right now. Brr.  
  
"Hey, we're almost there," I whispered to Tina, who was next to me on the plane. Whispering was necessary because more than half of the plane was asleep. And apparently, was Tina, I was able to gather by her silent response. I wished the plane would hurry up and land. I had been sitting in it for about 12 and a half hours and was getting pretty sick of the small, claustrophobic room I was in.  
  
Suddenly, the 'Fasten Your Seatbelt' light ignited. A blonde stewardess said in a cheery voice, "We will be arriving shortly. Please fasten your seatbelt." As she did not bother to keep her voice down, just about everyone woke up at once, many grunted or yawned, and finally the engine made a different noise. I looked out the window. I could see a huge see of yellow dots, which had to have been London. Soon, there was a screech of tires and the plane rolled to a stop.  
  
The stewardess rambled on again. "Blah, blah, blah, check your compartments for luggage. Blah, blah, blah, please exit the vehicle when the, blah, blah, blah." I wasn't really listening.  
  
"Hey we're there!" That was Tina for you, as clueless as you can get. She was also a blonde.  
  
"No, really?" I said sarcastically. I was starting to get crabby. I wanted off that plane.  
  
Finally, we were in the London airport. I noticed that the lady in front of me that exited the airplane had some toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her shoe. As I tried to conceal a laugh, I noticed Tina doing the same.  
  
"What's so funny?" my dad asked. Conrad nodded his head toward the toilet-paper-on-the-shoe lady and snickered. The toilet paper came off when she stepped in some gum. Gross.

* * *

Okay, so we were outside the airport, it was 47 degrees, and the black sky was pouring down rain. I shivered in my "Summery" outfit in the cold. When we left for the airport, I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt, but had pulled on a sweatshirt when we landed. Suddenly something occurred to me. "Dad, how are we going to get to the house from here?"  
  
"When I was looking in the manual on England, I found out that there is a service called the 'Knight Bus.' You just put out your right hand and the bus comes to pick you up. The cars are waiting at the house." He put out his right hand, and, sure enough, along came a bus. But this was no ordinary bus. It was tree stories tall and was bright purple.  
  
I snickered. "Jeeze, I knew that England had double story busses, but this is just ridiculous."  
  
When we had finally gotten all our luggage on the bus, Tina and I started pelting our parents with questions.  
  
"What was this new school called again?"  
  
"Hogwarts, Tina."  
  
"Why did we move here again?"  
  
"Conrad! You should know that. Your father and I got an offer to work on a top-secret biological project. Sorry, but we can't tell you anymore that because it's top-secret.  
  
So don't be blabbing to all those British kids at Hogwarts about it either, okay?"  
  
Tina and I were muggle-born wizards. Our parents were both scientists.  
  
"Sure," Tina and I replied.  
  
Suddenly, the bus driver slammed on the brakes and our seats slid forward several feet. An old witch wearing bright green clothes hobbled out of the bus. The bus lurched ahead and sent our seats slamming against the back wall of the bus. My dad rubbed his back. My mom winced. Tina muttered something about crazy bus drivers.

* * *

It was about half an hour later and the bus had just roared away from the house and disappeared. I looked up at the street sign and then at the house. The address appeared to be Number 7 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surry. Sitting in the driveway were our two cars: My mom's blue Volkswagen New Beetle and my dad's red Ford Escape. They both had California license plates, as they had not yet been registered in England.  
  
The house was a cookie-cutter house. That was the first thing I noticed about it. It looked exactly the same as all the other houses on the street, to the last perfectly manicured shrub. Thank god for the numbers on them or I wouldn't have known which one I lived in!  
  
Tina seemed to have been reading my mind. "Wow. All these houses look exactly the same."  
  
"Well, we need to get our stuff in," my dad said. Everything had already been moved into the house in advance except for our clothes and other accessories like such. Tomorrow, (or really today, as it was about 4:30 AM) we would have to figure out where we wanted all our stuff to be put. There was still a lot of work to be done. They went inside and plopped asleep wherever their beds had been put. 


	3. The Two Fruitcakes

**CHAPTER THREE:  
The Two Fruitcakes**  
  
As I had not gotten to sleep until about 5 AM, I wasn't out of my bed until after ten o'clock. Tina was asleep in a bed nearby. I quickly dressed in the bathroom and then made my bed.  
  
When I entered the kitchen, I found my parents sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. "We've already finished the kitchen," my dad informed me. "Go wake up your sister and tell her to help us unpack." He sounded crabby. He never seemed to be able to get out of bed after 7:30, so he probably got a maximum of three hours of sleep.  
  
"Sure," I said, stifling a yawn.  
  
"Get up." That didn't seem to work. "Get up," I repeated, poking her in the side. She made a loud snore and rolled over. I got out my yo-yo and played with it on her face. That got her up.  
  
"Hey, ow! You jerk!"  
  
"Get up and help mom and dad unpack."

* * *

By three PM, we were about half way done putting everything in place. My room was about the same size as my room in my old house, and had one fairly large rectangular window that currently overlooked a fat kid chasing a skinny kid that looked about my age around number four's front lawn. I had a bad feeling about the fat kid. I could see his hysterical laughing as he pursued the skinny kid around the garden. He didn't look very nice.  
  
BONG. I jerked up in surprise, banging my head against the window. "Ouch!" What was that noise? As I peered around my bedroom door, I heard the front door open. Of course! That was the doorbell. But what an odd-sounding and very loud doorbell it was. I didn't like that doorbell.  
  
As I bounded down the stairs to see who it was, I saw a very stiff looking couple greeting my mom, dad, and Tina.  
  
"Oh, and this is our son Conrad," my mom told the stiff-looking couple.  
  
"Hi." I shook their hands. Judging by the fact that the woman wrinkled her nose when my mom introduced me, this neighbor didn't approve of my name.  
  
The neighbors wished us welcome to the country in thick British accents and thrust a store-bought fruitcake into my mom's hands. They quickly left.  
  
"Friendly people," my dad said, eyeing the fruitcake with hunger. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.  
  
"That lady wrinkled her nose at me!" Tina said in disgust. Okay, so it wasn't just me. Maybe she didn't approve of Americans altogether.  
  
"She did that to me too."  
  
My dad was cutting the fruitcake on the kitchen table. I don't like fruitcake. It feels like eating a wet sponge with chunks of dried stuff in it.

* * *

It was five thirty and we had been really packing for the last two and a half hours. Still, there were countless boxes of stuff in the family room. I picked one up to bring to my room. Tina was sitting on the couch, reading a muggle magazine called 'YM.'  
  
"Tina, what are you doing?" I asked incredulously. She didn't hear me. Or, at least, she pretended not to hear me. I moved closer and gave her a stern look. "Tina, stop reading that 'YM' magazine and get packing!"  
  
"Who are you to tell me what to do?"  
  
"We don't want to have to be packing tomorrow do we?"  
  
She shrugged."  
  
"Tina, get your rear into gear and take a box upstairs to your –"  
  
BONG. I jerked in surprise and dropped my box on Tina's 'sensitive' toe, whose magazine simultaneously went flying as she screeched in pain. "Ow! You stupid, bratty –"  
  
"Shut up, both of you!"  
  
"But mom, I didn't say anything, it was Ti –"  
  
My dad swung the door open and I fell silent. In the entrance of the door was a beefy man, a tall, skinny woman, and the fat kid that chased the skinny kid earlier. I walked over to the door and Tina gave me a menacing glare as she hobbled over and stood next to my dad in the doorway.  
  
"Hello, and welcome to Privet Drive," the man said with false cheeriness. "I'm Vernon Dursley, this is my wife Petunia, and our son Dudley." He sounded like he had rehearsed these lines earlier.  
  
My mom and dad and Vernon and Petunia began an idle chat-to-kill-the-time-and-pretend-to-be-friendly session.  
  
"So, what brings you out to England?" Petunia asked with even falser cheeriness that Vernon.  
  
"We got a business opportunity that we just couldn't pass up."  
  
"Which state were you from?" Vernon inquired.  
  
It was more like a question and answer interrogation. Vernon and Petunia would take turns asking questions and my parents would answer. I started to get bored. Dudley seemed to have gotten tired of the interview after the first question and stared at the flowers by the front door.  
  
After a few more minutes, Vernon decided it was time to make up an excuse to leave. "We'd better get going and prepare dinner. Nice meeting you."  
  
Petunia produced a store-bought fruitcake from a paper bag that read 'Harry Wallace's Grocery' and shoved it into my mom's hands. They quickly hurried off.  
  
"Oh great, another fruit cake," I said. 


	4. The Boy With The Black Hair And Green Ey...

**CHAPTER FOUR:**

**The Boy With The Black Hair And Green Eyes**

By the next day, all the packing was moving was entirely completed. Our beds were in the correct places rather than in the middle of the family room; our TV was in the family room and not in the kitchen; and Tina and my computer was in the guest room instead of in the dining room.

When I woke up that day, (at a normal hour, 9:00) the jet lag had almost entirely worn off. One of the best things about my room was that I got my own bathroom. I walked into my private bathroom, took a shower, dressed, and made my bed. I wore a pair of shorts from JC Penny and one of my many Old Navy tee-shirts. Old Navy was my favorite clothing outlet. After brushing my hair, I pulled on my favorite Old Navy ball cap. Looking out the window I realized that it looked like a nice day outside. Much better than last night, that is.

I was wrong.

As I pulled open my window and stuck my head outside, I realized why it was a bad idea. It was a lot colder than it looked. I heard distant thunder rumbling in the background and felt a few cold sprinkles on my nose. Freezing wind lashed at my face. I normally liked the wind. Not today.

Suddenly, in the house next to the one directly across from mine, I heard a window unlatch. I stared intently as the skinny boy from yesterday poked his head out the window. His untidy black hair became even more untidy as the wind whipped it all over his head. I pulled my head back inside the window before I got frostbite.

As I slammed the window shut, something occurred to me. The boy who had put his head out the window was in Number 4. That was the same lawn the fat kid, Dudley, was chasing him in. Hadn't Vernon said that they were from Number 4? Why didn't he come to greet us yesterday with his family?

I went down the staircase, playing with my yo-yo. Suddenly, I tripped and fell flat on my ass. Wincing, I decided that I shouldn't go down the staircase so fast anymore. In my old house, we didn't have any stairs. I had to get used to it.

Suddenly, my mom came rushing into the family room. "What was that noise?"

"What noise?"

"It was a kind of 'thump.'"

"That was me; I tripped and fell on my as- butt."

"Oh. Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay." I thought that was a silly question.

* * *

"I'm bored," I said. I don't know if I said that as punishment for my parents for dragging me all the way to England or if I really was. I think I really was.

"Go take out the trash."

"I don't want to."

"Go wash the car."

"It's too cold."

"Go read a book."

"I've already read all my books."

"Well, go to the library and find a book," my dad replied, reading the local newspaper that we ordered.

"Yeah, maybe you can find a good British comedy," Tina teased.

"I know! I'll ride my bike!" When I had explained about my bike to my friends at Sacramento Institution for Wizards and Witches, the school I went to in California, most of them were completely enthralled, as they grew up in wizarding families and had never heard of such a thing.

"Tina, do you want to come too?" I asked. I didn't really care if she came or not, but I thought it would be polite to ask anyway.

"Maybe later."

"I'm not going later, I'm going now."

"No, then."

As I got up to leave, my dad stopped me. "Wait a minute, Conrad. You'd better take this in case you get lost." He handed over a map which included the area we lived in.

"Okay, thanks." I turned to go.

"And if you still do get lost, just call for the Knight Bus to pick you up and take you back here. Here's some money." He handed over a few silver sickles.

"Don't worry, I won't get lost." I raced out the door before he could stop me again.

As soon as I had pedaled down the driveway, I raced back up to the door and entered. A few seconds later I emerged again, this time wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was from Old Navy. The jeans were from The Gap. I'm not going into anymore detail about my clothes.

* * *

I was riding down a very narrow cobblestone alley and I felt kinda lonely and missed California. Fortunately, the weather had not gotten any worse so I was still able to explore my new environment. As I turned a corner, I noticed there was a park up ahead. Naturally, in my American nature, I was riding on the right side of the rode. A compact, kind of ugly European car suddenly came around the corner. He was heading strait for me!

My tires skidded as I pulled my bike to the left side of the road and my rear wheel slipped sideways on the slightly wet cobblestone. I fell unceremoniously onto the ground. When I looked up, the driver was giving me the peace symbol. "Huh?"

Aching, but without any other injuries, I pulled my bike up and walked it to the park. I plopped down onto one of the swings.

"That was a pretty nasty fall you had there," a British voice suddenly observed.

Startled, I fell off the swing. Where did that voice come from? I looked around wildly and found myself staring into a pair of green eyes no more than a dozen feet away on another swing. "Hello, I didn't see you there."

I felt embarrassed for falling off the swing. It was almost like that kid just appeared there! I quickly got up. "I'm Conrad, just moved in yesterday." We shook hands.

"I'm Harry."

I soon realized that this was the kid that stuck his head out of Number 4 earlier today. "You live in Number 4, don't you? I saw that kid Dudley chasing you around yesterday."

"Yeah, that's me. The Dursleys are my aunt and uncle. Dudley is my cousin."

I didn't have the nerve to ask why he didn't live with his parents. As I was coming up with possible reasons why he didn't live with them, I got a pain in my side. I winced. "That guy was driving on the wrong side of the road."

Harry laughed. "No he wasn't. _You_ were. This isn't the United States, you know. People here drive on the left."

I felt stupid for not remembering that. I blushed. "I knew that."

That made Harry laugh even harder.

"But why did he give me the peace symbol?"

"That was no peace symbol! He was flipping you off!" He was now rolling on the ground with laughter. I was appalled by his behavior.

He had finally calmed down about seven minutes later, when the rain began to pour. The rain totally took me by surprise. A few seconds ago, it was almost starting to become nice outside.

"Is the weather always this bad?" I asked Harry as I ran for cover under an overhang.

"Oh, no, it's not. This is just England's way of welcoming Americans to the country."

"Is it always this cold?"

"No, it's usually around 25 degrees."

"Celsius, you mean."

"Of course. You Americans use Fahrenheit, don't you?"

"Yep. What school do you go to?"

"Oh, I go to Hog –" Harry stopped himself and did what looked like some quick thinking. "I mean, I go to Smeltings."

"But you were about to say Hogwarts, weren't you?"

Harry whipped his head toward me so fast, I felt dizzy. "Are you a wizard?"

"Yeah, I am," I replied, my face brightening, "I'm going to Hogwarts on September first."

"Me too! I'm going to be a third year. How about you?"

I made a confused face. "I'm going into the eighth grade. . ."

"Well, over here we call it First year, Second year, Third year, so on."

"That's interesting. I don't know then. I turned thirteen in July though. What does that make me?"

"You'll be a third year too. I also turned thirteen in July. 31st July, actually."

"Well, happy birthday. Mine was on the 10th."

I was very curious about Hogwarts, and what a perfect person to ask, as he had gone there the last two years! "Tell me about Hogwarts."

Harry launched into explanation. "There are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. I'm in Gryffindor, by the way. Gryffindor is the best house to go to. And I'm not just saying that because I'm in it, I heard that before I even got to Hogwarts in my first year, and I have to say, they were right."

I listened, my curiosity growing.

"Whatever happens, you don't want to be a Slytherin. Slytherins are Griffindor's enemy. Plus, most of them are really dark and evil. Of all the witches and wizards that went bad in Hogwarts, all of them were in Slytherin.

"Ravenclaw is where the intelligent ones go. All the rest get chucked into Hufflepuff."

Harry continued to talk about Hogwarts for another fifteen minutes and I told him about Sacramento. "California is the biggest state in the US, so Sacramento had six houses. There was one school in about every state, except for the really unpopulated ones like Wyoming, or small in size ones, like Rhode Island. Well, I take that back. There were only thirty schools in the whole country, and fifty states, so twenty states didn't get a school all to themselves. . ."

"Okay, so what was Sacramento like?"

"Well, I'll tell you this," I replied, "the weather there was a heck of a lot better than here!"

We both laughed for a while about that.

After a while, I glanced at my watch and did a double-take. It was already 4:30! Seeing that I left the house at one, I had a feeling that my parents wouldn't be too pleased about me being gone in a foreign country for three and a half hours. "I have to go, Harry. My dad is going to file a missing person report on me soon!"

"Okay, I'll see you around," Harry said.

As I pedaled home, I realized that I couldn't wait for September first to come and see what Hogwarts was really like.


	5. To Diagon Alley

A/N: Hey all you readers! I'd like to give a special thanks to those three who reviewed. Thank you! Now, on with the story.

* * *

**CHAPTER FIVE:  
To Diagon Alley**

Many days past and in no time September first was just a week away. Harry had spent the last few weeks of summer vacation at his friend Ron's house.

Suddenly, an owl popped into the house from the kitchen window, where the four of us were eating dinner.

My dad rushed over to the owl, which was a brown barn owl, and removed two letters from its talons. He then pushed the owl back out of the window.

"I bet those are the letters from Hogwarts," I said matter-of-factly.

Dad gave one each to Tina and I. They were the letters from Hogwarts. I read trough the letter.

"We have to go to Diagon Alley before September first to get our supplies," Tina explained.

"Where's Diagon Alley?" I asked.

"I have no idea, but it is on the floo network," Mom said. "We can go there tomorrow."

* * *

_**The Next Day...**_

My mom put her hand in the container of floo powder, threw it into the fireplace, and said, "Diagon Alley." She was gone in a puff of flame.

Tina did the same. "Diagon Alley!" She disappeared.

It was now my turn. "Diagon Alley," I said.

Several seconds later, I was standing next to Tina and my mom in a small, crowded alley. My dad then appeared next to us.

"It looks like Gringotts is on the other side of the alley," my dad observed, consulting a map of Diagon Alley.

As we walked there, I noticed many interesting stores. "Look, you can buy owls there. And over there you can buy a broomstick."

"Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions," Tina said, reading one of the signs on a building.

"You'll have to go there to get your new Hogwarts uniform."

Finally, we reached Gringotts. As we entered, I noticed Harry standing in a crowd of multiple redheads and a single brown-haired girl.

"Conrad, Tina, over here!" Harry called.

"Look, there's Harry," Tina said absent-mindedly.

"Ya think?" I asked sarcastically. Harry had come over to our house once before he left for Ron's house. "Hey, Harry! What's up?"

"This is Ron," he pointed to a red-head, "Fred, George," he pointed to identical red-heads, "Percy," another red-head, "Ginny," the youngest red-head, and only girl, "and this is Hermione," he pointed to a girl about my age, who had frizzy brown hair instead of red.

Tina and I shook hands with the five carrot-tops and Hermione. Our parents were off talking to who were probably the parents of the five red-headed kids. The father seemed very excited about something.

"So you two are from the United States?" Hermoine asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" I asked.

"Harry told us."

Tina went over and talked to the twins, Fred and George, who looked her age.

"What's your favorite Quidditch team?" Ron asked.

"The San Jose Sharks," I replied.

"I've heard of them. Are they any good?"

"Oh yeah, you bet they are! They won the World Series in 1944 and 1960. What's your favorite team?"

"The Chudley Cannons."

"Ron's obsessed with the Cannons," Harry piped in, grinning. "You should see his room! You can't even find a place on his wall where there isn't a Cannons poster."

Ron blushed so that I couldn't tell where his forehead ended and his hair began.

"I've never heard of the Cannons. Where are they from?"

Ron opened his mouth to answer but before he could do so, my dad came up to me and told me that we had to go.

"I'll see you later," I said.

Mom nearly had to pry Tina away from Fred and George. "I love their accent! It's so cool!" She began imitating the way the British talk. Tina was such an Anglophile.

We went over to a counter where a goblin was sitting and followed him into a cart which took us underground at about ninety miles per hour. Tina and I screeched the whole way.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! We're going to crash!"

"Ohmygod look out for that stalactite!"

"Ahhhhhhh!!! We're gonna fall into a bottomless pit!"

"That's enough, both of you!"

We made a sharp turn that nearly unseated me.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"

Finally, we came to an abrupt stop which hurled me forward, thrusting me into my mom's back.

"Vault seven hundred-seventy-seven," the goblin announced.

I got up to my feet very shakily and fell down in front of the door.

"Step aside, please," the goblin told me. I moved. After we had gotten some money, we reentered the cart, which began moving again.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Look out!"

* * *

Once we got home, I dumped my stuff on my bed. I remember being shocked by some of the items that we needed to get. For example, 'parchment.' Why write on parchment? Is that dumb or what? Why don't we just use some binder paper? And then 'quills.' Why should I write with a feather? That's so medieval. I got a few quills, but fortunately, we had packed a large box of pens and pencils that we got in California. I laughed as I imagined what Hogwarts might be like, with candles instead of lightbulbs, and no electricity. Of course, this school _can't_ be that old-fashioned, though. My imagination sometimes got away with me.

I looked at my new black set of robes. They were really quite elegant. I liked them. Plus, they were comfortable. Unfortunately, they also looked like a dress. But, if everyone had them, I guess it would be okay.

September first couldn't come soon enough.


	6. Platform Nine and Three Quarters

**CHAPTER SIX:**

**The Journey From Platform 9 ¾**

I was so exited on September first that I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. After I lied in bed for half an hour, anticipating the train ride to my new school, I got up and took a shower.

Thinking that I might look silly in my black robes at the train station, I put on some regular muggle clothes.

By seven o'clock, everybody was up and eating breakfast.

"Oh, this is going to be so exciting! Do you think I should change into my robes? I thought that maybe we're not supposed to change until we're on the train, but I'm not sure..." Tina was jabbering on and on.

"No, don't change into your robes," my dad replied.

"I do hope my hair looks alright today, I think it might be a little too frizzy –" I decided that it would be best to just tune her out.

As we finished breakfast, I nervously glanced at my watch, which read 7:20.

"I wonder which house I'm going to be in, Fred and George told me that Gryffindor is the –"

"What time do you think we should leave? I figure it's probably an hour drive to the London train station, but I think we should leave earlier than nine just to be safe," I interrupted loudly so that I could be heard above Tina's rambling.

"I think that's a pretty safe time to leave, maybe even a little later than that, I don't think we need to be there an hour ahead. Probably 9:30 or so," my dad said.

"You two had better get packing, we'll leave in about two hours." Mom then got up and started clearing the table.

* * *

Almost two hours later, Tina and I were rushing up and down the stairs like tornadoes getting our bags to the door.

Tina bumped into me as I was heading downstairs with my last item: a suitcase full of all my books. "Watch it!" I hollered, stumbling down the remaining steps.

"Sorry!" She shrieked.

I placed my suitcase by the door and my dad and I took all the items to the car and into the trunk of the Ford Escape. Tina came outside with her last bag and stuffed it into the packed trunk.

My mom came exited the house and locked the door. "Is that everything?"

"I think so," my dad replied, getting into the drivers seat on the left side of the car.

Reluctantly, I got into the back seat, Tina sitting next to me. I had been trying to avoid riding in the car ever since we came here because I was afraid of the disasters that might occur with them driving on the wrong side of the road.

My dad pulled out of the short driveway and soon we were driving to away from Privet Drive on the left side of the road. My dad had gotten in quite a bit of practice since we arrived here.

Fortunately, by the time we got to Kings Cross Station, we had only had three near misses and no accidents at all.

My dad found a parking spot and went to the station to get two carts. Which I think were called trolleys here.

Today was probably the nicest day we had seen in England all summer. The sun was shining brightly between a few clouds and the temperature was probably around 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

My dad came back with two 'trolleys' a few minutes later and helped us load our stuff onto them.

We pushed them to platforms nine and ten, Tina talking animatedly.

"How do we get onto platform 9 ¾? There is none!" I exclaimed.

"All you have to do is walk into the wall between the two platforms and you'll appear next to the Hogwarts Express. It's magic, of course."

"Well, here goes," I said, and walked into the wall, with my mom right behind me.

A few seconds later, Tina appeared with my dad. "Now, that was weird."

"Well, we have, like, half an hour," I informed them, looking at my watch.

"Guess we'll leave you two to get on the train," Mom said glumly.

"We'll see you at Christmas."

"Bye!" Tina and I hugged our parents.

"See you in four months!" I said.

"We'll miss you," they said, walking back through the barrier.

"Let's get a compartment," I said as a few students walked through the wall.

"Good idea."

Tina and I lugged our trunks into a compartment and put them in the storage area. We then went outside and waited around uncomfortably for a bit.

Suddenly, army of red-heads walked through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ talking noisily. Tina and I went over to join them.

"Hey, Conrad, Tina, how've you been?" Harry's voice said from somewhere in the middle of all the Weasleys.

"Harry! Great to see you."

We walked to the train with them, all of us talking loudly.

"I've got a compartment with the Head Girl at the from of the train, so I'd best be off," said Percy, puffing out his chest importantly so they all could see a very highly polished, gleaming badge that read 'Head Boy' on it.

"Percy, are you Head Boy?" I asked.

"Congratulations!" Tina cried.

"Thank you," he answered, making himself look even more important.

"Percy, why didn't you tell us you were Head Boy?" George asked mockingly.

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," Fred said.

"Once."

"Or twice."

"A minute."

"All summer."

"Oh shut up you two, really, you sound like you did when I got my prefect badge," Percy said huffily.

"Really, you should be proud of your brother!" Hermione scolded.

"Oh, the shame!" The twins exclaimed in unison.

Percy left toward the front of the train in a bad temper.

Tina led the rest into our compartment and soon all eight people had their trunks in the storage space.

We all sat down, Tina in between Fred and George, with Ginny at the end, and Harry in between Ron and Hermoine with myself at the end next to the window. It was fairly crowded.

The topic of discussion soon turned to Quidditch and stayed that way until the train started moving twenty minutes later. Hermione, who was next to me, looked bored to death by this conversation and we started one of our own about schoolwork.

"Oh, I do hope they start the new classes right away, I just can't wait to learn about the new subjects. Do you know what new subjects you're taking yet?"

"No, I guess I'll find out tomorrow, won't I?"

"I just can't wait, Arithmancy sounds so exciting, don't you think?"

"Wow, we get to learn Arithmancy? Only fifth years get to take that at Sacramento."

Tina declared that she was going to use the bathroom.

"Anyway, I was thinking about Divination. Does Hogwarts teach Divination?"

"Oh yes, Hogwarts has Divination. That would be very interesting, wouldn't it?"

Just then, there was a click and the door reopened, but Tina wasn't the one who was standing the doorway. In came a boy about my age with slicked black blonde hair and a mean sneer.

"Oh look, if it isn't Potty and his friends, I suppose –"

Suddenly, we were all standing. I blew up in rage when this kid called my 'Potty.' He didn't even _know_ me and he was already calling me one of my most disliked nicknames from Sacramento! "What did you just call me?" I said loudly. "Look here, buster," I poked him in the chest, "you don't even know me and already you've given me a nasty nickname! I've heard that enough times in Sacramento, thank you very much, and I don't need it to be brought with me all the way to friggen Europe, eight stinking time zones away! I can't _believe_ that you just called me that, how you even knew my name in the first place is –"

"I wasn't talking to _you_," he spat hotly, "I was actually insulting Potter behind you." He quickly left, muttering something about foreigners.

"Your name is Potter?" I had a bewildered look on my face.

Harry looked confused by the whole thing. "Um, yeah..." he said slowly.

"Oh, that's why. I thought he was talking to me. You never told me your last name. Mine is Pott."

"Really? What a coincidence," said Harry, looking amused. "That was great! I've never seen Malfoy stop bothering us so quickly before!"

I grinned and sat back down. The door clicked and swung open once again. We all stood up.

Tina looked confused. "What're you all standing for?"

"Never mind," said Fred.

We all sat down.

I stared out the window as the countryside flew past.

"Hey Harry, wanna play chess?" I head Ron ask.

"Okay," he replied.

Ron reached up to the luggage area and pulled out a very battered chess set. I turned around to watch them play. Chess wasn't a very big thing in California.

Harry and Ron played many times, Ron winning each time. Hours went by as we all watched the two play chess.

"When does the train get to Hogwarts?" I asked.

Hermione looked down at her watch. "We'll probably get there in about half an hour. We should change into our robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon."

It was pandemonium as the eight of them tried to pull their robes out from their trunks in the luggage area.

The sky became darker and darker, and, about half an hour later, as Hermione said, the train began slowing down.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in about five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

My stomach lurched with nerves as we all stepped out of the compartment. The train finally came to a complete stop and we joined the crowd pushing its way to the door. I stepped out onto a dark, small platform reading 'Hogsmead Station.'

A huge man, about ten feet tall appeared. "Firs' years, this way please. Firs' years, follow me. Aren't you two the ones from the United States?"

"Yes," Tina and I said.

"Follow me, please," he said gruffly.

"Hope you're in Gryffindor!" Harry said merrily, as he took a different path toward a group of horse drawn carriages.

Tina and I followed the huge man along a very dark path, all of us slipping on the muddy ground.

"Yeh'll get to see Hogwarts in just a sec here, if yeh'd just follow me please."

The castle was huge, sitting atop a hill, with multiple towers springing up from the rooftop.

There was a loud "Oooooh!" from the first years.

Just ahead was a lake with many small boats sitting in the water bye the shore.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the huge man called. Tina and I got into a boat.

Once the rest of the first years had grabbed boats, they began moving away all on their own.

The boats glided on the water toward the castle, until they finally reached a small harbor underneath the school.

They exited the boats and walked up a flight of stone steps until they reached the large, oak front door.

The huge man raised a huge fist and knocked on the door.


	7. First Impressions

**CHAPTER SEVEN:**

**First Impressions**

The door opened and in the doorframe stood a dark haired, strict looking witch.

"Good evenin' Professor McGonagall. The firs' years," said the large man.

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here. Follow me, you lot," she said sternly, indicating us to follow her.

Professor McGonagall led us to an enormous entrance hall, with a marble staircase directly in front of them. I looked around at the walls, and, to my horror, I found were lined with candles in brackets. This was one medieval and nevertheless highly fascinating school, one like none other he had been in before.

Professor McGonagall faced us and gave us the general rules of Hogwarts. Basically, your triumphs earned your house points, and breaking the rules would lose you points. Exactly like Sacramento.

She left for a few minutes and then came back to us. "We're ready for you."

We all followed her into the great hall, which had four tables lined up in the middle, and one long table facing us in the front. All the first years were chatting nervously.

Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the High Table, and placed a dirty, dusty hat on top of it. I glanced around, and found Harry, Hermione, and all the Weasleys sitting at the table second from the right.

Suddenly, a rip in the dirty hat opened wide and it sang:

_Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin,_

_Just put me atop your head, and see what house you will be in._

_Will it be Gryffindor,_

_The brave and the bold, who always win,_

_Will it be Hufflepuff, _

_The true and the loyal, who never sin,_

_Or perhaps Ravenclaw,_

_The intelligent ones lie within,_

_Maybe you're fit for Slytherin,_

_Make your real friends, come right on in!_

_Do not worry, do not fear,_

_I will make this choice for you,_

_Because as I can see and you can too,_

_You are very young and new!_

_Try me on, yes please do,_

_For I am a hat, and not a shoe!_

_Come on up, put me on your head,_

_And listen, to what I have said:_

_Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin,_

_Which fine house will you be in?_

The hall erupted in loud applause, and the hat bowed low to each table before becoming perfectly still again.

"Now when I call your name, please come forth and place the Sorting Hat on your head. Once the Sorting Hat has made its decision, join your classmates at the appropriate table." She took out a long list and began calling names.

"Alameda, Brad!"

After a few moments, the hat shouted "RAVENCLAW!"

"Bakersfield, Trent!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Barstow, Connor!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table erupted in applause.

"Fleming, Sharona!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

As this continued, the amount of people waiting in line grew smaller and smaller.

"Monk, Adrian!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Monk, Ambrose!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Nantucket, Eileen!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table erupted in applause. Soon, there weren't many people left.

"Pittsburgh, Raven!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Pleasanton, Donna!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And, finally...

"Pott, Conrad!" I walked shakily up to the four-legged stool with the frayed hat on it. I picked it up and placed it onto my head.

"_Interesting. Yes, very interesting. Plenty of intellect, yet also plenty of courage. Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?_" The hat was speaking to me inside my head. "_From the United States, is it? Yes, very nice place, however, I have never been there. Which state were you from?_"

I thought this was a very odd method of placing me into a house. "_California,_" I responded. "_Why does this matter? Sorry if I sound rude, but I'm curious why you would ask me that._"

"_Well, I'm just curious. Plus, knowing where the person is from is also a part in sorting._"

"_But most people here are from England. Should they all be in the same house?_"

"_No, no, you see. They come from all over the place. It's actually very interesting. In fact, last year we had a young man from Finland. But you're right, it's not that important. Well, where to put you? Sorry for getting off the subject, lad."_

I noticed that people in the hall were starting to get anxious, as this was the longest sorting yet.

"_Can I choose between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw?_"

"_Yes, yes, in fact, many people actually just say where they want to be, and I put them there. Most people don't think about that though. So, I'm allowing a choice between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. You are very hard to place._"

"_Okay, I choose Gryffindor._"

"_All right. I hope you made the right choice._"

He then spoke aloud. "Better be...GRYFFINDOR!"

There was a loud applause and I went to sit at the Gryffindor table next to Percy.

"Pott, Tina!"

Tina went up and placed the hat on her head. About three minutes later, after many odd looks from the students, the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

I and the rest of the table cheered as Tina sat down at Gryffindor table. "That is one weird hat," she said. I laughed.

After the last person ("Zhu, Chris!") was made a Ravenclaw, the headmaster, Dumbledore, stood up.

"I'd like to inform you all that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds. Also, singing earrings have been added to the list of items forbidden in the castle. You can view the complete list of some four hundred eighty-three items in our caretaker, Filch's office.

"So, with that said, let the feast begin!"

Automatically, all the plates in the hall filled up with food. I looked around at all the food. They had normal food, like steak and ribs and mashed potatoes and cornbread, but they also had some food that I had never seen before, and when I pointed one dish out to Harry, he said it was 'Steak and Kidney Pie.' I gave myself some mashed potatoes and ribs.

After a while, all the plates cleared and a wide variety of desserts had filled the plates in the hall. Harry told me the names of some of the more unusual ones, like Treacle Tarts and Peppermint Humbugs. I tried a treacle tart. It was very good.

"Tina, try these weird things called 'Treacle Tarts.' They're really good," I said, flinging the tray of treacle tarts at her.

"Why, is there something wrong with them?"

"Tina! There's nothing wrong with them. Just try it!"

"Why would you ask me to try it if there was nothing wrong with it?"

"Because it's good!" I exclaimed, exasperation written in my voice.

* * *

Half an hour later, Dumbledore dismissed us from dinner and the four houses rose as one and headed off to their separate Houses.

However, before I could get up with the rest of Gryffindor, Professor McGonagall rushed toward me with a piece of parchment in her hand. "Mr. Pott, wait a minute."

Harry and I turned around. As there was no second syllable to the name she requested, it was clear that she meant for me, and not Harry. He rushed off with the rest of the Gryffindors.

"You still have to choose your new classes for this year. Here are your choices." She waited patiently as I decided which classes I wanted. I had liked the sound of Divination from the start, so I marked that. Arithmancy had also sounded interesting. But, ooooh! Care of Magical Creatures! That sounded fun. I chose that too.

I handed the paper back to her. As she rushed away, I stopped her. "Wait a minute, professor. Could you tell me where the House is?" I had no idea where it was, and it was too late to follow the rest of my House.

She made what almost looked like a smile. "It's strait up those stairs. If you go quickly enough, you might find the rest of the Gryffindors still heading up."

I quickly walked to where she told me to and went up the stairs.

* * *

My shoes made loud clunking noises as I walked down some hallway, unbelievably lost. I was panicked. This school was huge! What if I never found it? And those darn candles didn't help either. What this school needs is some electricity.

Up ahead, I thought I saw something moving. _Yes_, I thought, _maybe it's someone who can help me find Gryffindor Tower_. Unfortunately, it was just a ghost. However, it still might know the way.

"Excuse me," I said nervously, my heart beating loudly. "Um, could you tell me the way to Gryffindor Tower? I'm lost."

The ghost was very pale and had what horribly looked like silver bloodstains all down his front. He turned an icy glare at me. I gulped.

"Just go strait down that corridor, up the stairs to the right, and up three more sets of stairs, then take a left and House is at the end of the hall," he said in an eerie voice.

"Th-Thank you," I stammered. I practically ran the whole way up the path the ghost had given me, and sure enough, there was a large painting of a fat lady.

"Password?" she asked.

I racked my brain, trying to remember what Ron's brother, Percy had said the password was. Aha! "Fortuna Minor."

Her painting opened up and I entered.

"Where have you been? It's quite late. You should have been back twenty minutes ago," was the greeting I got from Tina.

"Well hello to you too. I got lost. If it weren't for that creepy ghost with silver bloodstains down his front, I'd still be lost, too."

"The _Bloody Baron_ gave you directions to the Gryffindor Tower?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Oh, is that its name? Fits him perfectly."

"The Bloody Baron is the Slytherin ghost," Harry added. "You should stay away from him."

"But why? If he hadn't been there, then I wouldn't be here. Because I would have been wandering around some corridor, totally lost."

"You got lucky," Hermione said. "Usually he's very unpleasant. He must have been in a good mood."

"Well, he seemed nice enough to me," I pouted.

"Rubbish," said Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny at the same time.

I decided to bed. "I'm going to bed. Wake me up in the morning."

I retreated up a staircase to a room marked "Third Years Boy's Dormitory." My suitcase was sitting on the bed third from the left in the circular room.

I put on my pajamas and crawled into bed. Half an hour later, Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus entered the room and a few minutes later heard them plop onto their separate beds. Neville began to snore loudly.

I closed my hangings and crawled back into bed. A few minutes later, I was sound asleep.

* * *

A/N: Hey, guys, it would be nice if you reviewed. How did you like the Sorting Hat's song? I made it up myself. I should update in a bit, and it might get more interesting later on. Please continute reading!

A/N


End file.
